#1
Seize the Day

The financial services industry is wooing baby boomers by making social service a new status symbol. "Work for world peace," one magazine ad reads, beneath a photo of a beaming doctor surrounded by children in a developing world village. "Feed starving children. Do what beauty pageant contestants talk about but never get around to." At the same time, Home Depot, in partnership with AARP, is recruiting older workers with the slogan, "Passion never retires."

Where are non-profit organizations when it comes to recruiting a new generation of sixtysomethings searching for purpose and effectiveness? All too often, off message, lagging behind and missing out. Many non-profit executive directors, program directors and volunteer coordinators show little interest in improving their organizations' ability to attract and retain older adults as workers or volunteers, according to a survey released in 2005 by the National Council of Aging's RespectAbility initiative.

But non-profits can't escape the demographic trends. The aging of the work force, already causing shortages of workers and skills in teaching, energy, engineering, healthcare and government, also is hitting non-profits hard. A United Way survey of non-profits in New York City found that nearly half the executive directors expect to retire within five years. Another survey found that more than one-third of California executive directors plan to leave in the next two years.

But the same demographic trends represent a potential windfall as well. The MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures "New Face of Work" survey found growing interest among Americans aged 50 to 70 in "good work," a combination of the seriousness and income associated with a job and the passion and purpose of service.